PETERBOROUGH

Another royal on the gogglebox

First came Harry and Meghan’s megawatt Netflix deal. Then a five-part BBC series from Prince William. Now, it appears, the Duchess of Cambridge, below, could be making her way to a small screen near you.

Hot on the heels of her husband’s Earthshot Prize documentary, the Duchess has been in talks with filmmakers as part of her research into childhood development. A note in the Court Circular this week revealed she spoke “via telephone” to David Glover, the co-founder of 72 Films, who has made programmes for Channel 4 and worked with the late scientist Stephen Hawking.

My sources at the Palace tell me the talks were preliminary and for research purposes. Royal watchers expect any new film to be about the importance of the first five years of a child’s life on their outcomes – an area the Duchess has devoted herself to.

But with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex cooking up a range of shows for Netflix in California and being trailed around New York by television cameras, perhaps the Duchess might be a bit more daring? When he was at Channel 4, Glover commissioned Gogglebox. A Royal Special featuring the Cambridges would certainly be must-watch TV.

Danger between the covers

The Prime Minister must be a glutton for punishment. Andrew Gimson, who penned the original and best account of Boris Johnson’s life, has been signed up by Simon & Schuster for a second volume. And the biographer says that Johnson has already offered to help with the second tome, which will cover his years in government from 2016 to the present.

The PM wasn’t always so supportive. In fact he was so nervous about Gimson’s first book, The Rise of Boris Johnson, that he offered him £100,000 not to write it.

Gimson tells me his new work “will shed light on this much misunderstood and usually underestimated figure”, adding: “I will not sell out for less than £1 million.”

Brandon’s sweet success

Tory delegates marvelled at a streamlined Brandon Lewis at this week’s party conference in Manchester. The exercisemad Northern Ireland Secretary has shed two stone after cutting out chocolate and junk food. None of which has been easy, particularly because his father ran a confectionery business while young Brandon was growing up.

All change in Ambridge

Whatever next for the regulars sipping their pints of Shires ale in the Bull? Simon Williams, the actor who plays “toff ” Justin Elliott in The Archers, has suggested his character in the Ambridge soap might come out as transgender. During an event at the Henley Literary Festival, talk turned to which issues the show should tackle next, with Williams asking the audience: “Would you like to see Justin [go] transgender for some reason?” The audience greeted the tongue-in-cheek suggestion with a roar of laughter – but is it really so fanciful? Fans of the show have long complained that the BBC’S hamfisted efforts to “modernise” the drama by using it to showcase right-on causes are no laughing matter.

Rachel’s red box

Rachel Johnson is clearly growing into her role as First Sister. First she sat next to her sister-in-law Carrie during her brother’s party conference speech. Now it has emerged that she has her own luggage which looks suspiciously like a ministerial red box.

The “red box” (below, which was not a present from Boris) is a £955 “carry-on case”, monogrammed with her initials in gold, from British luxury luggage-maker Globetrotter, which claims to have supplied cases to the Queen and Winston Churchill.

“I did choose the colour,” Rachel, above, admits. Perfect for weekends away at Chequers.

Too Cleverly by half?

Speaking of weekends away, the ongoing spat between Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab over the right to use the grace-and-favour Chevening mansion is getting wearisome.

The Chevening Estate Act of 1959 states that the PM has to decide the “nominated person” to occupy the 17thcentury home. But James Cleverly, Truss’s deputy at the Foreign Office, thinks he may have a solution: why not make all grace-and-favour properties only available to ministers who use them to drum up business for the UK? This may well give Truss, with her experience of winning trade deals, an advantage over Raab, but it’s a risky suggestion. Cleverly can expect a frosty reception in the office if his brainwave costs his boss her cherished Chevening perks.